Friday Brief Intro 20/05/2022

Good afternoon and welcome to this week’s Friday Brief! We hope you have all had a great week!

I’d like to begin with a bit of news regarding the MTA’s CEO. Once again, our CEO, James Selka and the rest of Team MAMIL have decided to get on their bikes and raise much needed funds for the amazing charity Help for Heroes. Check out the short story below.

Citation have put together a comprehensive free guide on improving quality, diversity, and inclusion – from creating a policy to support your employees, to spotting signs of discrimination. Download the guide in the story below.

As a manufacturer of precision turned and milled components, Neida runs a successful apprenticeship scheme from manufacturing locations in Stoke-on-Trent and the Isle-of-Wight and believes that the key to closing the ever-increasing Skills Gap is getting the next generation interested in engineering. Take a look at some comments from two graduates that are now employed at Neida and why they chose the apprenticeship they did in the story.

The business department, BEIS, has launched a new set of webinars on UKCA and UKNI conformity assessment marking and the phasing out of CE. The sessions start on May 24th and run through June and July. Find details on all webinars below.

Foreign secretary Liz Truss has made a statement in the Commons, stating the government’s intention to introduce a bill to allow changes to the Northern Ireland Protocol. Among other measures, the Bill will remove regulatory barriers to goods made to UK standards being sold in Northern Ireland. Businesses will be able to choose between meeting UK or EU standards in a new dual regulatory regime. Comments from Liz Truss and more important info can be found below.

Our colleagues at ECTA and Swissmem would like to remind you about the invitation to the ECTA Conference 2022 from June 30 to July 02 in Rüschlikon on Lake Zurich. You won’t want to miss this networking opportunity so make sure you check out the below.

Michael Tyrrell has written an article on the PES Media website about MACH 2022! Check out this interesting article to find comments by James Selka and a couple of the companies that exhibited at the show.

Our economic news this week has a distinct European tinge although we start with the flash productivity data for the UK – this fell at the whole economy level but edged up for manufacturing, albeit with a mix of trends for the key industries.

The European industrial output data showed a significant fall in March, probably driven by the initial reaction to the war in Ukraine and its impact on supply chains, with Germany particularly badly affected and capital goods the weakest of the sub-sectors on most comparisons. The GDP data for the 1st quarter is a little more positive although a handful of countries saw their economies contract at the start of the year, with Italy the most significant of these. The other element is a brief summary of the new forecasts from the European Commission which have seen the growth rates for both 2022 and 2023 downgraded compared to their previous main forecast last autumn.

We had hoped to have completed the MTA Business Survey for April today but for a variety of reasons, including a lower response rate, this is now likely to be Monday. Therefore, there is still time to let us have your input via the online form at www.mta.org.uk/mta-business-survey-apr22.

Finally, just a reminder that the documents from our forecast update are available to download from the members area of the MTA website at https://www.mta.org.uk/members-area/mta-forecast-documents (if you don’t have your password and login details, please contact us and we will sort this out for you). You can also find the presentations from our Spring update Seminar last week – in particular, the slides from Andy Goodwin (Oxford Economics Chief UK Economist) now have the notes included in the file so if you have already downloaded this, you may want to go back and check for the latest version.

That’s the last of the stories we have for you this week! Have a great week and we’ll ‘see’ you again next Friday.

Why choose an Advanced Manufacturing Engineering Apprenticeship at Neida?

As a manufacturer of precision turned and milled components, Neida runs a successful apprenticeship scheme from manufacturing locations in Stoke-on-Trent and the Isle-of-Wight and believes that the key to closing the ever-increasing Skills Gap is getting the next generation interested in engineering. “After achieving 12 GCSE grades A-C, I preferred a practical approach to education; […]

Tackling sexual harassment in the workplace | free guide for MTA members

Last summer, the government confirmed they’ll be reforming the Equality Act, putting more emphasis and pressure on employees to prove they’ve taken positive action to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace. Three out of four people have reported their experiences of harassment at work. As a result, the government is increasing pressure on employers to […]

Help for Heroes charity bike ride

Once again, our CEO, James Selka and the rest of Team MALIS have decided to get on their bikes and raise much needed funds for the amazing charity Help for Heroes. Help for Heroes charity bike ride has been running for many years and uses pedal-power to raise vital funds to give strength to wounded […]

ECONOMIC NEWS

UK Productivity, 1st Quarter 2022: With data on wages and hours worked as part of the labour market release, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has published its flash estimates of productivity for the start of 2022. The headlines show that on the preferred measure – output per hour worked – productivity fell compared to the […]

Michael Tyrrell’s Article – MACH 2022: Just what the doctor ordered!

MACH 2022, the largest display of new machinery and manufacturing technologies under one roof in the UK for four years, lived up to its billing as a major catalyst for investment with scores of exhibitors reporting strong sales and positive interest in their products during the five-day event at Birmingham’s National Exhibition Centre. And in […]

European Cutting Tool Conference

Our colleagues at ECTA and Swissmem would like to remind you about the invitation to the ECTA Conference 2022 from June 30 to July 02 in Rüschlikon on Lake Zurich. Swissmem, in cooperation with the ECTA Secretariat, will host this event and they have put together an attractive program with excellent speakers for the conference. […]

Switzerland’s largest trade fair celebrates its 20th anniversary with a promising edition

The 20th anniversary edition of Switzerland’s most important trade fair, to be held from 14 to 17 June at Palexpo-Geneva, will see an increase in participation compared to September 2021. This year’s event will be dedicated to innovation, employment, business and youth. EPHJ will indeed reveal the results of the follow-up to the survey carried […]

Bill to amend Northern Ireland Protocol

Foreign secretary Liz Truss has made a statement in the Commons, stating the government’s intention to introduce a bill to allow changes to the Northern Ireland Protocol. Truss said a settlement negotiated with the EU is preferred, but went on: “The challenge is that this solution requires a change in the Protocol itself, as its […]

New BEIS webinars on UKCA and UKNI

The business department, BEIS, has launched a new set of webinars on UKCA and UKNI conformity assessment marking and the phasing out of CE. The webinars cover: Economic operators and routes for conformity assessment Understanding marking and labelling Placing goods on the market in Great Britain Placing goods on the market in Northern Ireland Understanding […]

Friday Brief